Saving Orangutans in Sumatra's Disappearing Rain Forests

Orangutans play a critical role in maintaining the health of their forest ecosystem through the dispersal of seeds, giving them the name gardeners of the forest. However, their species is under severe threat. As forests are cleared to provide room for agriculture and palm oil plantations, many orangutans are left without a home. This makes them more vulnerable to poachers. Sumatran orangutans, classified as critically endangered, are estimated to only have 7,500 left.

The first time 2016 Emerging Explorer Panut Hadisiswoyo locked eyes with an orangutan, he knew he wanted to help. He founded the Orangutan Information Centre in Sumatra, which is dedicated to conserving Sumatran orangutans and their forest homes. Hadisiswoyo takes the stage to talk about his passion for saving orangutans and the incredible work his organization has done to help protect this endearing species.

The National Geographic Live series brings thought-provoking presentations by today’s leading explorers, scientists, photographers, and performing artists right to you. Each presentation is filmed in front of a live audience at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Panut: In Sumatra, the Leuser Ecosystem is one of the largest and most intact tropical rainforests left in Southeast Asia. It is the only place in the world where you have Sumatran tigers, Sumatran rhinos, Sumatran elephants and orangutan living together in the same place at the same time. Unfortunately, the Leuser Ecosystem the forest is shrinking.

For the last 15 years I have been dedicating my life to saving orangutans. These orangutans are living in the Leuser Ecosystem on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. So, the forest of orangutan is really, really precious. And not just orangutans that depends on this forest for their survival but humans depend on this forest for many, many reasons. And I would say that the orangutan is actually the guardian of the forest because they actually keep regenerating, you know. They keep planting trees. They are the best gardener of the forest. And that means actually they are the symbol of our fight against global warming. Unfortunately, the Leuser Ecosystem, the forests in Sumatra and also in Borneo are shrinking because of the bad planning. Even the Leuser Ecosystem is not even recognized in the government's special plan. 80% of the orangutan habitat has been gone, mainly for plantation. And not just orangutan that is suffering because they are losing habitat but also many other animals become victims of human-wildlife conflict. And for orangutan, being stranded is a problem. It's a big, big trouble for them because they cannot go anywhere. They cannot find food and a picture like this showing you like, you cannot go anywhere, and you face starvation. And you can imagine that like, with this kind of situation, where orangutan just have no trees left to go back to the forest and people can get access to actually shoot the mother and get the baby for pet-trade.

This is a big male orangutan, kept there for 20 years. You can see the small door there when he was actually taken, when he was very small. Now he is lucky because he is now in safety. And this gentleman, look at that handsome. And but-- unfortunately this guy is actually really, really in trouble because he is living in a very small forest patch and we try to bring him into safety. So, we come to the plantation area and we check every tiny forest patch left in the plantation that is surrounded by palm oil plantation. And sometimes we found these things, that is sad. Orangutan cannot survive in the plantation. And we have to rescue. When we rescue orangutan on top of the trees top of the canopy like this, like that-- You can see that it's very risky, dangerous. But we have to do it anyway otherwise they are in trouble, being shot, you know, or captured or even die of starvation. And then we have to get the mother, check their health while the orangutan is still actually asleep because of the anesthetic because we actually tranquilize the orangutan. And not just young orangutan but also male orangutan that we have to rescue. And this massive animal, you know we have to really carry into safety. Sometimes we have to go find a very best place crossing the river, and we sometimes have to cross you know, peat swamp, and then we have to move them into safety in the Leuser forest.

And, this is like a happy moment when I see actually orangutan being released. It's a freedom. This is something that we want to do, we want to achieve. This is our final goal. Keep forest as forest. We want to secure the habitat so we chop down illegal palm oil trees. And then we plant them with forest trees. And that is actually my son planting trees with me. And then, this is just showing you how we plant trees for growing forest from beginning and we actually look at it from the top. And for five years, actually we got this. So, which is really, really promising and I believe that this is like bringing you a new hope that we can do something, we can help our nature. And not only that, but animals coming back. And then this actually this is also becoming playground for many, many animals. So not only that but also many, many people, local people coming to learn and join us to actually help with the project and this being-- this bring a good momentum for local people that we can still save our forest. So, it's never too late to save our nature so, you can do your own, your own part, and I believe you can contribute in your own way. So, please join me and save our rainforest and orangutans. Thank you.

Saving Orangutans in Sumatra's Disappearing Rain Forests

Orangutans play a critical role in maintaining the health of their forest ecosystem through the dispersal of seeds, giving them the name gardeners of the forest. However, their species is under severe threat. As forests are cleared to provide room for agriculture and palm oil plantations, many orangutans are left without a home. This makes them more vulnerable to poachers. Sumatran orangutans, classified as critically endangered, are estimated to only have 7,500 left.

The first time 2016 Emerging Explorer Panut Hadisiswoyo locked eyes with an orangutan, he knew he wanted to help. He founded the Orangutan Information Centre in Sumatra, which is dedicated to conserving Sumatran orangutans and their forest homes. Hadisiswoyo takes the stage to talk about his passion for saving orangutans and the incredible work his organization has done to help protect this endearing species.

The National Geographic Live series brings thought-provoking presentations by today’s leading explorers, scientists, photographers, and performing artists right to you. Each presentation is filmed in front of a live audience at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C.